ONE YEAR FURTHER ON.

A year ago yesterday was the day that I escaped-took early retirement.

The year has not exactly gone to my original plan. The accident at the end of the ACCR was the start of it followed by the diagnosis of cancer a few months later and then further health issues that have all conspired to mess up my careful planning.

However the one thing that you have when you retire is the ability to use the entire 24hours of each day as you want so I have had plenty of time to reflect on this first year.

Here are just some of my thoughts-

It is a good thing that I have lots of hobbies and interests and belong to various clubs etc as without them retirement would be very boring. The ONE and ONLY thing that I miss about working for a living is the contact with workmates-the comradery-fellowship with others on a daily basis. Leaving work puts you in the position of 'out of sight out of mind'. Don't get me wrong-a few of the guys I worked with keep in touch and there are some that I meet up with quite often - usually to go cycling with. But in turn there are far more whose lives carry on and of which I am no longer a part of- this I feel is a pity but nevertheless a fact of life.

Throughout my entire working life I don't think that I ever really enjoyed being at work-I would always prefer being somewhere and doing something of my own choosing. Activities such as camping-backpacking-cycling-photography etc were always far more attractive things for me to be doing.
I am really enjoying not going to work-being able to spend all of my time doing the things that I want to do and enjoy doing.

How much different it would be if I had been a workaholic or just someone with a really strong work ethic and no hobbies or outside interests. As I said for someone like that retirement would be a boring and depressing situation to be in. For anyone who fits into these catergories I would advise against retirement- it would be wasted on you - it would be like owning a Ferrari but only being interested in driving at 30mph- a complete waste- no, if you fit into those catergories just leave retirement to people like myself who can get the most out of it.

I have never been able to understand people who win the lottery for instance and then say that it is not going to change their life and that they are going to continue working. It just strikes me as being very unimaginative. With almost unlimited resources and time the world really is your oyster.
I certainly don't have unlimited resources or indeed unlimited time but within the parameters of what I do have I feel that retirement has freed me up to enjoy far more of life than was possible when I was tied to the daily grind.

Retirement- I would certainly recommend it but only to those people who have things that they really want to do. If you are enjoying work - stay there!